Monday, May 23, 2011

Translated this one for you / Dagens, inklusive översättning

To publicly display my craziness to you, dear readers in 50+ countries, below you'll find an English translation of my article in today's newspaper since I don't think it's enough to simply express myself this way to 100 000 readers of the paper. Did I have to include trolls in my concert review? Apparently so. Please scroll down.

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(a quick and not very good translation but there are trolls included)

High-class musicians
A concert in the Härnösand cathedral rounded up this year's chamber music festival after four intense days of performances by Sweden's Young Chamber Soloists.
[...]
Viktor Olausson, founder and artistic director, participated in Brahm's Sting Quartet in G major during the concert, and the different instruments seemed to speak to each other. The piece had a scent of early midsummer's night with light, sparkly notes playing against a darker foundation of folk music and forests filled with trolls.

Trio élégiaque by Rachmaninov told mysterious, dramatic stories with Aleksander Sätterström on the violin, Peter Friis Johansson on the piano and Jakob Koranyi, cello. There is no doubt that Viktor Olauson has found high-class musicians, simply by asking if they wanted to collaborate.

The greatest performance of the concert, to the undersigned, was Sonata in H minor by Liszt, performed on a very well tuned grand piano by Peter Friis Johansson, who introduced the piece by talking about Liszt's ability to join intellect with virtuosity and sensibility of sound, thereby creating a miracle.

A miracle? That is quite the description, but once Peter Friis Johansson started to play the sonata, the miracle seemed to take place right there, in the Härnösand cathedral, in a piece which somehow fast forwards through an entire life and every human emotion. There were chirping birds, whispering waves, action movie sound effects and a sort of desperation, as if that of a person who has walked for miles in pouring, ice cold rain to shout I love you, you idiot, to someone who won't open the window. It would not have been surprising had the fossils encapsulated in the church's stone floor suddenly come to life from this music.

Due to restoration work, the space was limited to a fraction of the actual size of the church, which actually seemed to be an advantage for this concert, making the surroundings more intimate. One can only hope that the chamber music festival with Sweden's Young Chamber Soloists will continue.